


What dread hand? & what dread feet?

by Elsinore_and_Inverness



Category: Discworld
Genre: Gen, Hogswatch, Painting, Tension, apology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:34:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24229708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsinore_and_Inverness/pseuds/Elsinore_and_Inverness
Summary: Downey’s gift this year was a proper gift. It was confusing and thoughtful and moving. Like the frame of the mirror three decades ago, the paint was still damp.
Relationships: Havelock Vetinari & Lord Downey
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	What dread hand? & what dread feet?

Lord Downey had given him a Hogswatch present. This happened, on average, every three or four years. Vetinari had come to realize this was normal for people who saw each other nearly every day and were... friends?

Friends weren’t supposed to allow poison to be involved when attempting to depose* you and you weren’t supposed to be happy about Sam Vimes punching your friends in the face. 

Vetinari was aware that to some extent Lord Downey would always see him as little Dog-Botherer who had given Downey the mirror from his room after he had drunkenly broken his own one night. It had zebra stripes painted on the frame, which made Downey feel like the mirror had belonged to a girl several years younger than Havelock. 

Downey’s gift this year was a proper gift. It was confusing and thoughtful and moving. Like the frame of the mirror three decades ago, the paint was still damp.

He had handed him a postcard sized watercolor of Lord Winder holding a plate of cake. At the bottom of the painting, in small copperplate handwriting was written “Passed the melancholy flood on May 25, Year of the Dancing Dog, with the assistance of Lord Havelock Vetinari (Scorpion House)”

Vetinari took the painting, holding it carefully by the edges. “You could have written smaller,” he said.

“Didn’t want you looking for your glasses.”

“Hmm,” Vetinari hummed. He felt like he was being shown his high score on a game that he hadn’t really asked to play. 

Recognition. Status. Being remembered and admired. That was a game, one some people took much more seriously than others—at least Vimes had finally figured out the way Vetinari played it - for ruthless practicality and fun. 

This was different. This was between two people, which made Vetinari feel like he’d found an apology note shoved into a locker by a man several decades younger than Downey.

He turned over the painting. In larger, more comfortable letters that were still recognizably the same hand was written:

veuillez ne pas brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts

One of the things Vetinari admired about Downey was his ability to put an apology inside of a threat inside of an apology.

“It really is a relief that you’ve been taken off the register,” Downey said warmly. “We were losing people.”

The Patrician raised an eyebrow. “Some. Yes. Was there anyone in particular you were wanting to talk to? I could put a call through to downstairs.”

“I just meant...” Downey hesitated, anything he said here would feel overly demonstrative in the face of Vetinari’s placid stare, “we shouldn’t take you for granted. You’ve got a fire under your feet, always have.”

“Thank you,” Vetinari said simply, and that was that.

*If you’re ruling a city and your friends DON’T attempt to depose you, you’re doing something** wrong 

**Probably nepotism 


End file.
